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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Waterford city

Waterford's where I first started to fall in love with the doors on Georgian architecture.
Reginald's Tower, on Waterford Quay, is thought to be Europe's oldest mortared stone tower and dates from about the 12th century.


Christ Church Cathedral is the third church on this site, the first having been built by the Vikings in 1096. It was the site of the wedding of an English Knight, Strongbow, and the Irish princess Aoife in 1170, a political alliance that changed the course of Irish history.

The current Cathedral was built in the 18th century; the "progressive" City Corporation of the time felt the Norman Cathedral was old-fashioned and "helped" it to fall down (which took quite a bit of gunpowder, as it turned out), clearing the way for this Neo-Georgian confection.



The base of one of the original supporting pillars of the Norman Cathedral is still visible through an opening in the floor:



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